GLADIATOR thumbs up/down

[Bruce Dykes]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bapopik at AOL.COM <Bapopik at AOL.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Friday, May 05, 2000 10:06 PM
Subject: GLADIATOR thumbs up/down


>   I saw a brief commercial of GLADIATOR (I haven't seen the movie).
"Thumbs
>down" was given--was this to kill the guy?  Wasn't it the other way?
>  Check for "Gladiator thumbs" on Google.  For a discussion of the OED, see
>the first entry:
>alumni.aitec.edu.au/~bwechner/Documents/Hitch/Thumb/thumb.html

And Ebert has this to add:

BY ROGER EBERT

Q. In "Gladiator," when the crowd wants to spare the life of Maximus, they
give the "thumbs up" sign. Isn't this historically inaccurate?

Joseph Rogers, Chicago

A. Quite so, as I pointed out in my review of the movie. Here is what the
invaluable Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has to say on the
subject: "In the ancient Roman combats, when a gladiator was vanquished it
rested with the spectators to decide whether he should be slain or not. If
they wished him to live, they shut up their thumbs in their fists; if to be
slain they turned out their thumbs."